a letter from Vicky Coren

Dear INTELLIGY,

For Richer, For Poorer:A Love Affair With PokerThis might be the most nerve-racking week of my life: book publication week. I have written a personal memoir of my life playing cards, called For Richer, For Poorer:A Love Affair With Poker.

Details are available on my website here, and you can buy the book on Amazon here. It will also be stocked in the PokerStars VIP Store soon, and I have read some extracts for PokerStars.tv which you will find here.

I am very proud of the book, but nervous about people reading it. Of course it is full of happy things – lucrative moments of victory, funny stories about the game and anecdotes about the famous faces - but it is also very honest about the dark times, the periods of low confidence and the heartbreak that came from falling in love with a fellow poker player. Once everyone’s read it, I half-wonder if I will ever dare go into a card room again.

But of course I will be going into a card room again very soon, because it’s nearly time for my favourite tournament of the year: the EPT London. The book tells all about my victory in this event in 2006, going through all the hands I played at the final table and how I won it. If you feel confident you’re going to win this year, read it
quickly now for a taste of what it’s going to feel like!

From September 23, you’ll be able to buy in for the main event in London directly online at PokerStars.com. But there are still plenty of cash and FPP satellites to get in far cheaper – just look in the PokerStars lobby under ‘Events’ > ‘EPT’.

And I am especially pleased that this year’s London festival will also include many other variants of poker: Pot Limit Omaha, Omaha Hi-Lo, round-of-each Holdem/Omaha and two magnificent 8-game tournaments. There’s a £2000 European 8 Game Championship for the high rollers and a gentler £500 version later. Full schedule for the festival is here:

http://www.europeanpokertour.com/tournaments/london/index.html#lon2

Good luck and I’ll see you in London. If you’ve bought the book and you disagree massively with my opinion of Las Vegas or the way I played that pair of sixes, you’ll find me at the table…

Best wishes,

WSOP Main Event on ESPN

The ninth and tenth hours of ESPN’s coverage of the 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event took us through the highs and lows of Day 3, the first day of play in which the entire field was united in one room. A pair of Melbourne-dwelling Aussies took center stage this week, with 2005 Main Event champion Joe Hachem and triple bracelet winner Jeffrey Lisandro dueling on the featured table. These two were certainly familiar with one another’s tendencies at the table, as they’ve spent countless hours playing together in high-stakes cash games at the Crown Casino. Pairing the icy Lisandro with the tiltable Hachem was an interesting lesson in contrast, with only one of the boys from Down Under surviving to play the next day.
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PokerStars League 2009

Cast of Characters: While Hachem and Lisandro ruled the main featured table, Kenny Tran captained the secondary along with Ville Wahlbeck, the only player remaining in the field that could wrest 2009 Player of the Year honors away from Lisandro. Tran was later joined by the always-entertaining David “Devilfish” Ulliott while out in the field Phil Ivey, Jennifer Harman, J.C. Tran, Peter Eastgate, Greg Raymer, Phil Hellmuth, Jean-Robert Bellande, Lou Diamond Phillips, Jason Alexander, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Josh Arieh, Dennis Phillips, Jordan Farmar, Hevad "Rain" Khan, Joe Sebok, and Kent Senter worked on growing their chip stacks.